I draw these pictures because I love how the worn-out, rusty cars and trucks (and other well-used and now abandoned vehicles) look, and the thoughts they bring to mind. They have - and I try to show this - the well-earned and hard-won beauty and character of things which have interacted with people and terrain and weather for many, many years.

Every vehicle is different because of the "life" it's had. The people who've driven it and the environment it's been a part of and responded to are always unique to each one of them; and so looking at one vehicle is not the same as looking at any other, even of the same make or model . . . not by a long shot.

Besides being subjects that refer to themselves alone, these old vehicles also bring to mind the humans we imagine having been associated with them (not to mention the dog with its head sticking out a rear window, the birds flying over dropping their cargo: splat-splat-splat, and the cat jumping on the hood to rest serenely over the warmth of the motor). The vehicles are in a way extensions of (as well as possessions of) the humans who have used them (and sometimes abused them), and so the worn-out old cars and trucks not only tell us the "story" of their own "lives," but also tell us something about the people who owned them.

Motorized vehicles exist only because of people - People invented them in the first place; people design them and make them and drive them, and people and people's possessions are carried in them. In other words, vehicles are not meant to exist alone - They need humans in order to be built in the first place, and then in order to fulfill their function they continue to need humans; in fact, it is only when they can no longer perform their expected "duties" in the service of humans that they are abandoned and left to rust to pieces or be picked apart or smashed with countless others to be turned into a bit of something entirely different, never again to be what they were.

Sometimes while looking at the picture we can not only imagine the people closely-associated with the vehicle over time, but can hardly help from seeing in our mind's eye a "picture" of the world (or at least the area) those people lived in during those times.

Even if the stories we read into what we see are not quite the same as (or perhaps are very different than) the actual facts, it really doesn't matter. We can still be enriched (to one degree or another) by the experience of contemplating the subject, imagining its past and even its future, as well as its present circumstances. The drawing or painting (some of my color drawings I call "dry paintings") becomes a scene that we can temporarily inhabit, allowing the contents of our own imaginations, our thoughts, ideas, and knowledge of various kinds, as well as our emotions, to roam and explore within it as they will. The "world" of the painting or drawing thus gives us a two-way creative experience as we and the artwork have a contemplative "conversation" about whatever comes to mind.

In addition to my desire to get across the "character" (and something of the implied "life story") of the vehicle, it is also very important to me to make each picture aesthetically-pleasing and interesting as possible, for my own satisfaction as well as for that of others who may see them. This is far more important than getting the car, or especially the setting, to look "just like it does in the photograph." What I make are pictures, not meant at all to look like photographs, and in fact I would feel as though I'd failed utterly if my pictures came out to look like photographs. A "work of art" does something different than a photograph does - It presents the subject through the artistic imagination of the artist who has, ideally, created the work skillfully and thoughtfully in such a way that you experience the subject as much as possible in the way the artist intends for you to experience it, while at the same time incorporating an overall look and quality that gives pleasure.

All of this is what I think about when drawing my "old car and truck" drawings, and these are the things that I hope to get across to the people who will look at them. I am not saying that I have accomplished my objectives in all cases, and in fact I myself am only really pleased so far by three or four of my own drawings (and even those I would improve if I could), but it is something I'm constantly working toward, more and more so as time goes by. -- Jean